Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: THAYNÁ DE SOUZA SANTOS

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : THAYNÁ DE SOUZA SANTOS
DATE: 18/06/2026
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: Virtual
TITLE:

THE MEMORY OF RACIST DISCOURSE IN THE DIGITAL WORLD:
When the image of Black women makes the meme work

 

KEY WORDS:

Memes. Black women. Digital discourse analysis, Recreational racism. Discursive memory.

PAGES: 69
BIG AREA: Lingüística, Letras e Artes
AREA: Letras
SUMMARY:

This research aims to investigate the discursive functioning of memes that use images of Black women as a central element for the production of laughter on the social networks Facebook, Instagram, and X. From the perspective of materialist Discourse Analysis (DA), we understand the meme as a discursive materiality that exceeds entertainment, constituting itself as a space of circulation and disputes over meanings traversed by ideology and history. The general objective is to analyze how these memes update discursive memories of subalternity and produce processes of racialized and gendered ideological interpellation. To this end, we mobilize concepts from Discourse Analysis, such as discursive memory (Pêcheux, 1999; Orlandi, 2009), interdiscourse (Indursky, 2011), discursive formations (Pêcheux, 1975) and (Gregolin, 2005), and the processes of paraphrase (Orlandi, 2009), (Lagazzi, 2015) and polysemy (Orlandi, 2009). Regarding discussions on race and gender, we engage with the formulations of Modesto (2018; 2021), Gonzalez (1984), Ribeiro (2018), and Cestari (2014; 2015; 2017). To mobilize the digital realm, we draw on the studies of Dias (2016a; 2016b, 2017; 2018), Paveau (2020; 2021), Silveira (2015), and the contributions of Gallo (2020) to understand the dynamics of circulation and reformulation of meanings on social networks. Regarding humor, we utilize Possenti (2018), Ribeiro (2018), and the concept of recreational racism developed by Moreira (2019) to discuss how laughter can act as a means of erasing and naturalizing racial violence. The methodology consists of a discursive analysis of a corpus composed of memes collected from the aforementioned social networks, observing above all the functioning of the non-verbal (the black female body) as an element that sustains the humorous effect. Our initial analytical explorations indicate that the meme, beyond being a humorous genre, reactivates discursive memories linked to slavery and the subjugation of Black women, while at the same time, in the digital realm, it can create openings for insurgency and the reclaiming of the word by historically marginalized subjects.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externo à Instituição - CRISTIANE PEREIRA COSTA DIAS
Interna - CARLA BARBOSA MOREIRA
Presidente - MARIANA JAFET CESTARI